Insurance in the GCC Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Insurance in the GCC - Research Paper Example Although economic growth in this region is very high, the insurance sector has fallen behind drastically. According to him, the opportunities for different local and international insurance company are very high, which will be accounted for increased competition, and also a challenging business environment (Ashcroft, 2013). There is also an expectation that the region’s insurance sector will also mature structurally in way of going forwards. Apart from this, in line with positive regulatory developments, there are constant efforts by some of the key insurance players towards achieving greater operational scale and functional efficiency. These companies want to take the first mover advantage. There are huge amount of opportunity in the GCC Insurance sector with the bigger organizations in the insurance market getting more and larger in terms of operational volume as well as the penetration in different parts of the world, and in that way leading to the marginalization of smalle r companies. The GCC Insurance Industry Outlook: With the untapped open market in place many leading insurance sectors are now looking forward for setting up their business unit in GCC. The opportunity of untapped market is huge and therefore every organization is looking for taking the â€Å"first mover advantage†. According to the report published by Alpen Capital (2013), the projective growth rate of the insurance industry in the Gulf region is 18.1% (CAGR) between the time periods of 2012-2017. According to their estimation the market value of the insurance industry in the gulf region will reach up to us $ 37.5 billion. Out of this, the life insurance segment will contribute US $ 2.4 billion and non life will account for US $ 35.1 billion. The growth in the non life part is more due to strong impetus of construction and infrastructure industries. An enormous portion of oil revenues in the GCC countries is being moved to the development of the non-oil segment in order to s upport the economic diversification of the sector. As a result, there is strong momentum in the construction sector. This momentum will help the region’s non-life insurance segment. Moreover, higher infiltrations of medical insurance and constant growth in the new vehicle sales are also likely to help the growth in the motor insurance sector which in turn will aid the segment’s growth. The rate of insurance penetration in GCC is also likely to go up from 1.1% in 2012 to 2% by the end of 2017. The industry growth rate is comfortably exceeds the pace of GDP expansion in this sector, Non-life insurance growth in the line of increasing infrastructure development and more vehicle sales, is likely to surge from 0.9% to 1.9% during the period, and will be the key behind the growth of this sector in the GCC region. UAE (United Arab Emirates) and Saudi Arabia are the two largest insurance market at present in GCC; the trend is such that there is every possibility that Saudi Ara bia may overtake the United Arab Emirates (UAE) as the largest insurance market in GCC with coming years. (Alpen Capital, 2013). Key Growth factor of Insurance Industry

Laundered Clothes Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Laundered Clothes - Essay Example Sometimes I feel that, even doing this is quite a chore! Well can you imagine how it must have been a hundred-and-fifty years' back, when there were no washing machines, no detergent powder (only cakes of soap) and no electric irons Well, let's cut back to 1858 Monday used to be weekly washing day. The washing process being a long one, it was necessary to allot a full day to it. Most homes tried to keep enough linen to keep them going through the week. (Old and Interesting) The coloured and the whites are separated the previous night, and the whites are soaked in water to loosen the dirt. On washing day, the clothes-both coloured and whites-are sorted out again. Those which are really dirty, oily or sweat-stained, including those whites which have been soaked the previous night, are soaked again in a large tub of a solution of soda bicarbonate (washing soda) and water. (WiseGEEK). Hot water was used if the clothes/ household linen were really dirty. Soda bi-carb was available in a powder form (it is a white powder) from the local grocery store. Alternately, some housewives boiled the clothes in a large metal pot, in water containing soda-bicarb. The pot was stirred with a long stick, and a large fork used to be used to handle the boiled clothes. Next, the clothes were individually washed with cakes of lye soap, by being beaten onto a serrated washboard, by hand, or sometimes a flat wooden bat was used to beat the clothes. (Old and Interesting) Homes which didn't have a washboard, just used a flat, wooden board or a hard, flat stone. Collars, cuffs and hems (dresses were long then) needed special attention to get dirt out; likewise delicate clothes with lace had to be handled gently. After this, the clothes were rinsed out in clean water. Several rinses had to be done in tubs of water kept alongside in a row, till the water ran clean from the clothes. Then the whites had to be 'whitened'. For this, washing blue (made of indigo) (Old and Interesting) was used. Washing blue was bought from the corner store, in little blue chunks. A chunk was tied in a linen cloth and dipped into a clean bucket of water. The water turned blue from this. To this was added starch and mixed well. Whites dipped into this came out starched and sparkling. As more and more clothes were dipped into the starch-blue solution, the solution itself had to be strengthened by adding more starch and blue. Care had to be taken to mix the starch well into the water so that the solution was not lumpy. Starch was not always available in the market, a hundred years back. It could be prepared at home by cooking corn flour in water, which yielded a sticky, viscous liquid, which was added to the water to p repare the starch water. The coloured clothes received the same starching as the whites did, except that the starch solution did not contain the blue. Personal linen (underwear) did not need starching, of course. After the starching, the clothes were wrung out (if too heavily wrung, they would lose all starch) and hung out on clothes-lines to dry. Wooden clothes-pegs were used to ensure that the clothes did not fly off the lines. While hanging them out, care had to be taken to see that they were sufficiently 'spread out', for one layer of wet starched cloth could get stuck to another. White clothes could be hung out in the sun, but not the coloureds, at least not in strong sunshine. Warm weather helped in drying out the clothes